Talk:Filing System

Always keep 7 years of files. Standard practice is to keep the most recent 3 years in your main filing cabinet and archives for the following four years easily accessible. Due to space limitations, we have only two years of some items in our main filing cabinet and in other cases (particularly archival) we have more than 3 years in the main filing cabinet. For those categories with only two years in the main file, archives are in the same room, close by, as mapped below.

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Each drawer is alphabetical by folder title. Drawers 1 (A/P) and 2 (A/R) also contain alphabetic folders.

Filing Standards

• Folder groupings: most current year goes in front
• Sub-folders: Alphabetize from A - Z
• Receipts/Bills: Most current date in front, oldest in back

For easy re-filing, each folder should be labeled with:

• business name, category title or alphabet letter
• the year
• A/P or A/R, if applicable

Inboxes - on top of the cabinet

• to pay (beancounters do this)
• to enter into books (beancounters do this)
• to file (office coordinator or intern does this)
• WTF? (make a new folder and/or ask where it should go)

Drawer 1 - top

Each year separate, with alphabetical/named tabs:

• 2 yrs A/P (accounts payable) alphabetical - we pay them
  • By year (independent alphabet for each year)
  • Alphabetical by name if more than 3 receipts from same business
  • Alphabetical by 1st letter, if less than 3 receipts from same business

Currently, all 10+ years of files are in the process of being audited and reorganized in a consistent matter. It's horrible. This page will tell you how you can help.

Purpose

To create a hierarchy of documentation for those brave, brave people of Free Geek, present and future, who choose (or are forced) go to where (almost) no man has gone before--the dark, thrilling, brutal, and entirely unglamorous world of administrative organization.

We want a system that

• is standardized!
• is easy to teach to others!
• makes it easy to find & refile documents!, &
• is easy to understand!

and we want it NOW! Or soon. That'd be great.

Inboxes

There are four inboxes on top of the main filing cabinet: To Pay, To Enter Into Books, To File, and WTF? They are all fairly self-explanatory. Typically, people who are doing filing work will not need to worry about the To Pay or Enter Into Books inboxes; To File has papers from the previous week that need to find homes, & WTF? is for those orphaned documents that didn't seem to fit anywhere (& for which homes may possibly need to be created).

There are, at present, four main places to file documents: Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Admin, and a box where we stick Volunteer Intake Forms. But first,

How do I stick it, & where?

Folders are filed in alphabetical order and are suborganized by year. Documents filed in these folders are further organized by date. All filing by date is done in reverse chronological order (i.e., most recent in front, older in back. Ancient files (how old?) are moved to the archives.

Plastic tabs go in the front slots of the legal hanging folders, not the back. Individual manila folders can have the tab at the front or the back, since fixing/replacing all of these files will be a huge waste in terms of paper and energy.

For Files with Ambiguous Destinations: If this world were the best of all possible worlds, a person could look at a file and know immediately where to put it, or need a file and know immediately where to find it. Unfortunately, that isn't the case. Ideally, we want to file things using the logical system of, "If someone were to look for this document, where would they search first?" and then place the document in that first place. In addition, also ask, "What is the most efficient way to file this document?" For example, printouts of staff hours could be organized alphabetically by employee, but for purposes of auditing and easy access it is more economical to keep them organized by month. If all else fails it, put it in the WTF? inbox & someone with (hopefully) more knowledge & experience than you will come along like a magic filing fairy & put it away.

Accounts Payable

Currently the top drawer of the lockable filing cabinet in the Monkeyhouse. A/P is the place to put reimbursements and receipts. If a store or expense has more than three receipts, it gets its own manila folder; otherwise, receipts are placed in the folder with the first name of the store or expense (i.e., Cash & Carry has its own folder, but Ray's Pretty Okay Chicken would just go under 'R').

Paperwork about outgoing funds to Paychex goes in the 'Paychex' folder in A/P; all other paycheck papers (including informational documents on Paychex) is in Admin under the 'Paychecks' folder.

Reimbursements, receipts, and invoices

These are organized alphabetically by store; if a particular store or expenditure has three or more receipts in A/P, it gets its own folder. Otherwise, it is placed into its respective letter file. A/R has more finicky rules for placement, seen below.

Admin

Payroll Filing

Payroll reports go into binder; monthly staff hours go into [communal or employee?] folder in Admin.

Auditing

Weekly

• File all contents of inboxes.
• Update wiki page as necessary

Monthly

• Ensure generic lettered folders are in order alphabetically & by date
  • correctly file misfiled receipts
  • create new folders for 3+ receipts from same company
• Ensure company folders are in order alphabetically & by date
• Write folder audit date on outside of folder & initial

Yearly

• Go through all folders & documents from 1/1 to 12/31 of the previous year, ensuring that all documents AND folders are in alphabetical order & organized by date

Drawer 2

Each year separate, with alphabetical/named tabs:

• A/R (accounts receivable) alphabetical - they pay us
  • By year (independent alphabet for each year)
  • Alphabetical by name if more than 3 bills from same business
  • Alphabetical by 1st letter, if less than 3 bills from same business

Multiple years together in one category:

• Bank (contents)
  • bank statements by bank & by year

• Checks (explain)
  • voided checks
  • completed check stubs by year

• Credit Cards
  • Total Merchant Concepts information

• Donations
  • Matched
  • Monetary
  • Non-monetary
  • Online

• Invoices
  • archives pre-2009 before database tracking

• Sponsorships
  • Geek Fair sponsorships
  • Other event sponsorships

Drawer 3

Multiple years together in one category:

• Admin (name subfolders)
  • 403B info
  • Annual Reports (archival)
  • BBB info (archival)
  • Bureau of Labor & Industry info
  • By-laws (archival)
  • Other F.G.s info (archival)
  • Grant Opportunities
  • OSHA info
  • Requests for Records
  • State of Oregon Employment Info
  • Trademark Infringement
  • T-shirt Art (archival)

• Board, by year
  • folder for each board members in each year

• Board Documents
  • Board Packet
  • B.O.D. Manual (archival)
  • Guide to Non-Profit Board Service in Oregon

• Complaints & Crimes
  • Better Business Bureau
  • Credit card charge issues & corrections
  • Crimes
  • Ombudsman (complaints/concerns)

• Contracts (name subfolders)
  • Audit - Sin Fronteras
  • Outreach contract (archival)
  • Trademark
  • Trademark Infringement
  • Martin, Oso
  • Oso/BEAR
  • McGuire Brothers lease
  • Miller, Ken (archival)
  • Under 16 contracts

• eWaste
  • NCER

• IRS tax exempt status (archival)

• New Hire Forms (name them)
  • regularly search the internet for the most current versions of these forms
  • print and replace old forms
  • keep these forms stocked

Multiple years together:

• Paychex info
• Vehicle Registration by year
• Retirement Info
• Volunteers
  • includes incident reports, contracts, some intern files
• W-2's by year
• W-9's
  • pre-signed
  • sent (copies)
• Collective, alphabetical
• Staff hours by year,then by month, alphabetical
• Former Employees alphabetical
• Employment Misc.
• Health Benefits Info

• Staff
  • current, alphabetical by last name
    • indicate start date under name
  • previous, alphabetical by last name

• Staff hours
  • by year, then by month

Drawer 4 - bottom

• Insurances (A/P)
  • NEED TO BETTER ORGANIZE INSURANCES WITHIN THIS CATEGORY
• IRS Filing by year (archival)
• Credit Card slips enveloped by month

Drawer 5 - bottom of Liane's filing cabinet

• Volunteer schedule archives
  • Adoption
  • Build
  • Pre-Build

Audit folders regularly

As you audit, note date of audit and your initials on front of each folder, as well as A/P, A/R, or Admin, Insurances, or IRS as denoted by initial location outlined above.

Audit archival years once before filing & note this was done including date, initials, and original location in main filing cabinet.

Under the Beancounter Desk (from left to right)

• Empty binders for dailies

• In Carboard Drawer 1:
  • 2006 A/P & 2006 A/R
  • 2007 A/P & 2007 A/R
  • 2008 A/P & 2008 A/R

• 2008 Dailies in order by Month (12)
  • in milk crate 1 & clear plastic tub 1
• 2009 Dailies in order by Month (12)
  • also in clear plastic tub 2 & milk crate 2

• In Cardboard Drawer 2:
  • Misc. Archive includes:
    • Dead trees paper archives
    • Staff Hours 2004-2007
    • Paychex Binders 2004 & 2005

• Paychex Binders 2006 - 2009
  • in milk crate 3

• Upright under desk:
  • Current Dailies binder
  • Current Paychex binder
  • Checkbook

When archiving, any of the above folder that contain multiple years should remain in the filing cabinet. If out of space, clearly communicate to beancounters where you will locate the oldest year(s) of the folder and document on the wiki.

Currently, all 10+ years of files are in the process of being audited and reorganized in a consistent matter. It's horrible. This page will tell you how you can help.

Purpose

To create a hierarchy of documentation for those brave, brave people of Free Geek, present and future, who choose (or are forced) go to where (almost) no man has gone before--the dark, thrilling, brutal, and entirely unglamorous world of administrative organization.

We want a system that

• is standardized!
• is easy to teach to others!
• makes it easy to find & refile documents!, &
• is easy to understand!

and we want it NOW! Or soon. That'd be great.

Inboxes

There are four inboxes on top of the main filing cabinet: To Pay, To Enter Into Books, To File, and WTF? They are all fairly self-explanatory. Typically, people who are doing filing work will not need to worry about the To Pay or Enter Into Books inboxes; To File has papers from the previous week that need to find homes, & WTF? is for those orphaned documents that didn't seem to fit anywhere (& for which homes may possibly need to be created).

There are, at present, four main places to file documents: Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Admin, and a box where we stick Volunteer Intake Forms. But first,

How do I stick it, & where?

Folders are filed in alphabetical order and are suborganized by year. Documents filed in these folders are further organized by date. All filing by date is done in reverse chronological order (i.e., most recent in front, older in back. Ancient files (how old?) are moved to the archives.

Plastic tabs go in the front slots of the legal hanging folders, not the back. Individual manila folders can have the tab at the front or the back, since fixing/replacing all of these files will be a huge waste in terms of paper and energy.

For Files with Ambiguous Destinations: If this world were the best of all possible worlds, a person could look at a file and know immediately where to put it, or need a file and know immediately where to find it. Unfortunately, that isn't the case. Ideally, we want to file things using the logical system of, "If someone were to look for this document, where would they search first?" and then place the document in that first place. In addition, also ask, "What is the most efficient way to file this document?" For example, printouts of staff hours could be organized alphabetically by employee, but for purposes of auditing and easy access it is more economical to keep them organized by month. If all else fails it, put it in the WTF? inbox & someone with (hopefully) more knowledge & experience than you will come along like a magic filing fairy & put it away.

Accounts Payable

Currently the top drawer of the lockable filing cabinet in the Monkeyhouse. A/P is the place to put reimbursements and receipts. If a store or expense has more than three receipts, it gets its own manila folder; otherwise, receipts are placed in the folder with the first name of the store or expense (i.e., Cash & Carry has its own folder, but Ray's Pretty Okay Chicken would just go under 'R').

Paperwork about outgoing funds to Paychex goes in the 'Paychex' folder in A/P; all other paycheck papers (including informational documents on Paychex) is in Admin under the 'Paychecks' folder.

Reimbursements, receipts, and invoices

These are organized alphabetically by store; if a particular store or expenditure has three or more receipts in A/P, it gets its own folder. Otherwise, it is placed into its respective letter file. A/R has more finicky rules for placement, seen below.

Admin

Payroll Filing

Payroll reports go into binder; monthly staff hours go into [communal or employee?] folder in Admin.

Auditing

Weekly

• File all contents of inboxes.
• Update wiki page as necessary

Monthly

• Ensure generic lettered folders are in order alphabetically & by date
  • correctly file misfiled receipts
  • create new folders for 3+ receipts from same company
• Ensure company folders are in order alphabetically & by date
• Write folder audit date on outside of folder & initial

Yearly

• Go through all folders & documents from 1/1 to 12/31 of the previous year, ensuring that all documents AND folders are in alphabetical order & organized by date